Telephone answering service with integrated voice and textual message storage

Claims

I claim:

1. A telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:

a system memory for storing textual and voice messages;

a voice message recording system for controlling recording of voice messages from answered telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory;

a textual message recording system for controlling recording of textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; and

a programmed controller for controlling the operation of the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system by execution of a control program, the programmed controller decoding a telephone number of each telephone call to a person having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system, determining a programmed service option to be performed in answering each telephone call to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system based upon the decoded telephone number, causing the voice message recording system to record a voice message in the system memory if the service option is specified to be answering telephone calls by the voice message recording system, initiating ringing of an operator to cause the operator to answer the telephone call and causing the textual message recording system to record a textual message in the system memory if the service option is specified to use an operator to record a textual message in the system memory; and wherein

the recording systems under the control of the programmed controller reproduce individual recorded messages recorded by the recording systems.

2. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising:

at least one telephone line coupling telephone calls placed to persons having telephone calls answered by the answering system;

at least one operator station with each operator station being used to answer telephone calls to be recorded by the textual message recording system;

a data transmission system coupling the at least one telephone line to the system memory for recording voice messages and the at least one operator station to the system memory for recording textual messages transmitted from the operator station and wherein;

the controller controls transmission of textual messages from the at least one operator station to the system memory for storage and voice messages on the at least one telephone line to the system memory for recording.

3. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 2 wherein the transmission system comprises:

a digital data bus;

an analog to digital converter for converting audio signals received on the at least one telephone line to digital format, the analog to digital converter being coupled to the digital data bus;

a memory, coupled to the digital data bus, for storing data to be transmitted by direct memory access, to destinations in the telephone answering system;

an analog transmission path coupling the at least one telephone line to an operator headset at each operator station;

the digital data bus receiving textual messages stored in the memory;

the digital data bus receiving voice messages stored in the memory; and

the controller controlling the transmission of messages on the data bus stored in the memory by direct memory access to the system memory for recording under control of the control program.

4. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 2 wherein the programmed service option of recording a voice message comprises:

a telephone caller to the person immediately recording a voice message in the system memory without operator intervention.

5. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 2 wherein the programmed service option of recording a voice message comprises:

a telephone caller to the person requesting assistance of an operator prior to recording a voice message in the system memory.

6. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 2 wherein the programmed service option of recording a voice message comprises:

a telephone caller to the person immediately recording voice message in the system memory without operator intervention; or

a telephone caller to the person requesting assistance of an operator prior to recording a voice message in the system memory.

7. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 1 further comprising:

at least one operator station coupled to the telephone answering system which is operated by an operator in answering telephone calls, each operator station including a display device for displaying information to be utilized by the operator in answering telephone calls to the operator station in a display area of the display device; and wherein

the controller decodes information transmitted with each telephone call to each operator station to determine a characteristic of the telephone call and causes information stored in the system memory to be displayed in the display area indicating the characteristic of the telephone call.

8. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 7 wherein:

the characteristic is that the telephone call has occurred in response to activation of playback of a voice message stored in the system memory.

9. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 7 wherein:

the characteristic is that the telephone call to the operator station is from a telephone caller of a person having their telephone answered by the telephone answering system.

10. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 7 wherein:

the characteristic is that the telephone call has occurred in response to activation of playback of a voice message stored in the system memory or the characteristic is that the telephone call to the operator station is from a telephone caller to a person having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system.

11. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 7 wherein:

the characteristic is that the telephone call is a check-in call from a person having their telephone answered by the telephone answering system.

12. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 11 wherein:

the programmed controller controls providing a voice summary of a number of telephone calls stored in the system memory under the control of the voice recording and textual message recording systems when a check-in telephone call is answered by the telephone answering system.

13. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 12 wherein:

the programmed controller controls connection to the check-in telephone call by providing a recording requesting entry of a code, compares the entered code with codes stored in the memory, with a separate code being assigned to each person having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system and upon matching the entered code with a stored code causes the voice summary of the number of telephone calls to be played back.

14. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 1 wherein:

the system memory stores a file including a code for each person having telephone calls being answered by the telephone answering system which must be matched with a code entered by telephone call to the telephone answering system prior to access to the memory being provided; and

the programmed controller controls generating a summary of a number of telephone calls stored in the system memory under control of the voice recording and textual message recording systems while the answering system is operating to answer telephone calls with either the voice recording or textual recording systems.

15. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 14 further comprising:

at least one telephone line coupled to the telephone answering system; and wherein

the programmed controller controls providing a voice summary of the number of telephone calls by controlling connection to a telephone caller on the at least one telephone line by providing a recording to the telephone caller requesting entry of a code, comparing the entered code with codes stored in the system memory, and upon matching the entered code with a stored code causing the voice summary of the person whose code has been matched to be played.

16. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 15 wherein:

the programmed controller, after controlling the providing of the voice summary, provides a recording instructing selective entry of one of a plurality of access codes which control access to messages recorded by the recording systems in the system memory, in response to an access code of the textual message recording system connects the telephone caller to an operator to permit the operator to read any stored textual messages stored in the system memory and in response to an access code of the voice recording system connects the telephone caller to a playback of the recorded voice messages stored in the system memory.

17. A telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:

a system memory for storing textual and voice messages;

a voice message recording system for controlling recording of voice messages from answered telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory;

a textual message recording system for controlling recording of textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; and

a programmed personal computer, the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system being program implemented within a program executed by the personal computer, the programmed personal computer decoding a telephone number of each telephone call to a person having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system, determining a programmed service option to be performed in answering each telephone call to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system based upon the decoded telephone number, the voice message recording system controlling the recording of a voice message in the system memory if the service option is specified to answer telephone calls by the voice message recording system, the programmed computer initiating ringing of an operator to cause the operator to answer the telephone call to the person having telephone calls answered by the answering system add the textual message recording system controlling the recording of a textual message in the system memory if the service option is specified to use an operator to record a textual message on the textual message recording system, the programmed personal computer having a digital data bus on which digitally encoded voice messages are transmitted under the control of the voice message recording system to the system memory for recording and on which digitally encoded textual messages are transmitted under control of the textual message recording system to the system memory for recording; and wherein

the recording systems under the control of the programmed controller reproduce individual recorded messages recorded by the recording systems.

18. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 17 wherein the programmed service option of recording a voice message comprises:

the telephone caller to the person immediately recording a voice message in the system memory without operator intervention.

19. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 17 wherein the programmed service option of recording a voice message comprises:

the telephone caller to the person requesting assistance of an operator prior to recording a voice message in the system memory.

20. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 17 wherein the programmed service option of recording a voice message comprises:

the telephone caller to the person immediately recording a voice message in the system memory without operator intervention; or

the telephone caller to the person requests assistance of an operator prior to recording a voice message in the system memory.

21. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 17 further comprising:

at least one operator station coupled to the answering system which is operated by an operator in answering telephone calls, the operator station including a display device for displaying information stored in the system memory to be utilized by the operator in answering telephone calls to the operator station in a display area of the display device; and

the programmed personal computer decodes each telephone call to each operator station to determine a characteristic of the telephone call and causes information stored in the system memory to be displayed in the display area indicating the characteristic of the telephone call.

22. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 21 wherein:

the characteristic is that the telephone call has occurred in response to activation of playback of a voice message stored in the system memory.

23. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 22 wherein:

the characteristic is that the telephone call to the operator station is to a telephone which is answered by the telephone answering system.

24. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 21 wherein:

the characteristic is that the telephone call has occurred in response to activation of playback of a voice message stored in the system memory or is that the telephone call to the operator station is from a telephone call to a person having telephone calls answered by the answering system.

25. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 23 wherein:

the characteristic is that the telephone call is a check-in telephone call.

26. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 25 wherein:

the programmed personal computer controls providing a voice summary of a number of telephone calls recorded under the control of the voice recording and textual message recording systems in the system memory when a connection to a check-in telephone call is made to the telephone answering system.

27. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 26 wherein:

the programmed personal computer controls connection to a check-in telephone call by providing a recording requesting entry of a code of a person whose telephone is being answered by the telephone answering system, compares the entered code with codes stored in the system memory, with a separate code in the system memory being assigned to each person having a telephone answered by the telephone answering system, and upon matching the entered code with a stored code causes the voice summary of the number of telephone calls to be played back.

28. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 17 wherein:

the system memory stores a file including a code for each person whose telephone calls are being answered by the telephone answering system which must be matched with a code entered by telephone call to the telephone answering system prior to access to the system memory being provided; and

the programmed personal computer controls generating a summary of a number of telephone calls recorded under the control of the voice recording and textual message recording systems in the system memory while the answering system is operating to answer telephone calls with either the voice message recording or textual message recording systems.

29. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 28 further comprising:

at least one telephone line coupled to the telephone answering system and wherein;

the programmed personal computer controls providing a voice summary of the number of telephone calls by controlling a connection to a check in telephone call by providing a recording requesting entry of a code, compares the entered code with codes stored in the system memory, and upon matching the entered code with a stored code causes the voice summary of the person whose telephone is being answered by the telephone answering service whose code has been matched to be played.

30. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 29 wherein:

the programmed personal computer, after controlling the providing of the voice summary, provides a recording instructing the selective entry of one of plurality of access codes which control access to messages recorded by the recording systems in the system memory, in response to an access code of the textual message recording system connects the telephone caller to an operator to permit the operator to read any stored textual messages stored in the system memory and in response to an access code of the voice recording system connects the telephone caller to a playback of the recorded voice messages stored in the system memory.

31. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 7 wherein:

the characteristic is that the telephone call to the operator station comprises conferenced telephone calls.

32. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 21 wherein:

the characteristic is that the telephone call to the operator station comprises conferenced telephone calls.

33. A telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls of persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:

a system memory for storing textual and voice messages;

a voice message recording system for controlling recording of voice messages from answered telephone calls to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory;

a textual message recording system for controlling recording of textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; and

a programmed computer for controlling the operation of the voice message recording and the textual message recording systems by execution of a control program controlling the recording systems, causing the voice message recording system to control recording of a voice message in the system memory if a person has specified that telephone calls be answered by the voice message recording system, initiating ringing of an operator to cause the operator to answer a telephone call and causing the textual message recording system to control the recording of a textual message in the system memory if a person has specified that an operator record a textual message in the system memory in answering telephone calls, the programmed computer having a digital data bus on which digitally encoded voice messages are transmitted under the control of the voice message recording system to the system memory for recording and on which digitally encoded textual messages are transmitted under control of the textual message recording system to the system memory for recording; and wherein

the recording systems under the control of the programmed controller reproduce individual messages recorded by the recording systems.

34. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 33 wherein:

the voice message recording and textual message recording systems are program implemented in the programmed computer.

35. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 34 further comprising:

means for transferring data on the digital data bus by direct memory access with all data transmitted under the control of the voice message recording and textual message recording systems being through a memory, coupled to the means for transferring data, for storing data to be transmitted by direct memory access.

36. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 34 wherein:

the programmed computer controls providing a voice summary of a number of telephone calls stored in the system memory under control of the voice recording and textual message recording systems to a telephone caller when a connection of a check-in telephone call is made to the answering system.

37. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 36 wherein:

the programmed computer controls connection to a check-in telephone call by providing a recording to a telephone caller requesting entry of a code, compares the entered code with codes stored in the memory, with a code being assigned to each person whose telephone calls are being answered by the answering system, and upon matching the entered code with a stored code causes the voice summary of the number of telephone calls to be played back.

38. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 37 wherein:

the system memory stores a file including a code for each person whose telephone calls are being answered by the telephone answering system which must be matched with a code entered by a telephone call to the telephone answering system prior to access to the memory being provided; and

the programmed computer controls generating a summary of a number of telephone calls recorded under control of the voice recording and textual message recording systems in the system memory while the answering system is operating to answer telephone calls with either the voice recording or textual recording systems.

39. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 38 further comprising:

at least one telephone line coupled to the telephone answering system; and wherein

the programmed computer controls providing a voice summary of the number of telephone calls by controlling connection to a telephone caller on the at least one telephone line by providing a recording requesting entry of a code, compares the entered code with codes stored in the system memory, and upon matching the entered code with a stored code causes the voice summary of the person whose code has been matched to be played.

40. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 39 wherein:

the programmed computer, after controlling the providing of the voice summary, provides a recording instructing selective entry of one of a plurality of access codes which controls access to messages recorded by the recording systems in the system memory, in response to an access code of the textual message recording system connects the telephone caller to an operator to permit the operator to read any stored textual messages stored in the system memory and in response to an access code of the voice recording system connects the telephone caller to a playback of the recorded voice messages stored in the system memory.

41. telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls of persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:

a system memory for storing textual and voice messages;

a voice message recording system for controlling recording of voice messages from answered telephone calls of persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory;

a textual message recording system for controlling recording of textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in the system memory; and

a programmed computer, the voice message recording and the textual message recording systems being program implemented within a program executed by the programmed computer, the voice message recording system controlling recording of voice messages in the system memory if a person has specified that telephone calls be answered by the voice message recording system, the programmed computer initiating ringing of an operator to cause the operator to answer a telephone call and the textual message recording system controlling the recording of a textual message in the system memory if a person has specified that an operator record a textual message in the system memory in answering telephone calls, the programmed computer having a digital data bus on which digitally encoded voice messages are transmitted under the control of the voice message recording system to the system memory for recording and on which digitally encoded textual messages are transmitted under control of the textual message recording system to the system memory for recording; and wherein

the recording systems under the control of the programmed controller, reproduce individual recorded messages.

42. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 41 wherein:

the programmed computer controls providing a voice summary of a number of telephone calls stored in the system memory under control of the voice recording and textual message recording systems to a telephone caller when a connection of a check-in telephone call is made to the answering system.

43. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 42 wherein:

the programmed computer controls connection to a check-in telephone call by providing a recording requesting entry of a code, compares the entered code with codes stored in the memory, with a code being assigned to each person having telephone calls answered by the answering system, and upon matching the entered code with a stored code causes the voice summary of the number of telephone calls to be played back.

44. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 41 wherein:

the system memory stores a file including a code for each person whose telephone calls are being answered by the telephone answering system which must be matched with a code entered by a check-in telephone call to the telephone answering system prior to access to the memory being provided; and

the programmed computer controls generating a summary of a number of telephone calls recorded under control of the Voice recording and textual message recording systems in the system memory while the answering system is operating to answer telephone calls with either the voice recording or textual recording systems.

45. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 44 further comprising:

at least one telephone line coupled to the telephone answering system; and wherein

the programmed controller controls providing a voice summary of the number of telephone calls by controlling connection to a check-in telephone call by providing a recording requesting entry of a code, compares the entered code with codes stored in the system memory, and upon matching the entered code with a stored code causes the voice summary of the person whose code has been matched to be played.

46. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 45 wherein:

the programmed computer, after controlling the providing of the voice summary to the telephone caller, provides a recording instructing selective entry of one of plurality of access codes which control access to messages recorded by the recording systems in the system memory, in response to an access code of the textual message recording system connects the telephone caller to an operator to permit the operator to read any stored textual messages stored in the system memory and in response to an access code of the voice recording system connects the telephone caller to a playback of the recorded voice messages stored in the system memory.

47. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 7 wherein:

the characteristic is that an emergency message has been recorded by the telephone answering system for a person having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system and all attempts to reach the person to deliver the emergency message have failed and the person has placed a check-in telephone call to the telephone answering system.

48. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 47 wherein:

the telephone answering system automatically upon answering the check-in telephone call from the person, rings an operator station and displays in the display area that the answered call is expected.

49. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 21 wherein:

the characteristic is that an emergency message has been recorded by the telephone answering system for a person having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system and all attempts to reach the person to deliver the emergency message have failed and the person has placed a check-in telephone call to the telephone answering system.

50. A telephone answering system in accordance with claim 49 wherein:

the telephone answering system automatically upon answering the check-in telephone call from the person, rings an operator station and displays in the display area that the answered call is expected.

51. A telephone answering system for providing textual messages and voice messages produced by the telephone answering system answering telephone calls to persons having telephones calls answered by the telephone answering system comprising:

a voice message recording system for recording voice messages provided by a caller to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system in response to the answering of a telephone call by the telephone answering system;

a textual message recording system for recording textual messages provided by an operator who answers telephone calls made to persons having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system; and

a controller controlling the recording of messages by the telephone answering system and controlling the reproduction of the recorded messages to provide direct caller access to messages recorded by the voice message recording system and access through an operator to messages recorded by the textuaI message recording system under the control of a single control program.

MICROFICHE APPENDIX

A microfich Appendix (consisting of four microfiche and a total of 296 frames) containing a source code listing of a computer program controlling the host system AT compatible computer of FIG. 3 is attached. The Appendix contains subject matter which is copyrighted. A limited license is granted to anyone requiring a copy of the program disclosed therein for purposes of understanding or analyzing the present invention, but no license is granted to make a copy for any other purpose including the loading of a processing device with code in any formoor language. The program is in polyForth ISD-4 programming language developed by Forth Inc. of Manhattan Beach, Calif.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to telephone answering systems. More particularly, the present invention relates to telephone answering systems for use by telephone answering services and private telephone switching systems.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART

FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art system marketed by the assignee of the present invention. The prior art system 10 incorporates a telephone answering system (TAS) with textual storage 12 which was marketed by the assignee of the present invention under the trademark.RTM.. The system 12 was modified to include an add on voice mail system 14 which was connected by means of a telephone switch 16. Operator stations 18 for use by the system 12 were connected to the telephone switch 16 instead of directly to the system 12 as in commercial applications of EVE.RTM.. The system 12 functioned as the host controller of the system 10. A subscriber of a telephone answering service using the prior art system 10 wishing to obtain voice mail service telephoned the answering service to have the subscriber's account programmed to provide either textual message answering service requiring the intervention of a live operator located at an operator station 18 to record a textual message or a voice mail message to be recorded by the voice mail system 14. The memories for the systems 12 and 14 were separate. A telephone caller to the subscriber was connected to the system 12 through the telephone switch 16. The system 12 decoded the number that was called to identify the particular subscriber of the system whose account is being serviced. The subscriber's programmed service option determined if the telephone call was to be handled through operator intervention by one of the operator stations 18 to record a textual message or alternatively if the telephone call was to be handled by a voice prompting produced by voice mail system 14 to record a voice message from the telephone caller. The activation of the voice mail system 14 to record a voice message left by a telephone caller to a subscriber of the telephone answering service required the system 12 to place a telephone call to the telephone switch 16 over low bandwidth telephone lines 19 which then connected the telephone caller to the voice mail system 14 by telephone line 20. Similarly, all communications from the voice mail system 14 to the system 12 such as when a subscriber checked in and was connected to the voice mail system and then wished to talk with an operator also required communications over telephone lines 19 and 20.

The prior art system of FIG. 1 has a number of disadvantages. In the first place, it has a plurality of separate systems each of which are connected by low bandwidth connections which prevented high speed data communications which slowed the overall system operation. The foregoing network required a number of analog to digital and digital to analog converters. Users of this system could not obtain a summary of the number of textual messages and voice messages which had been answered by the telephone answering system by placing a single telephone call. Therefore, if the subscriber's answering function had been programmed to use a combination of voice and textual messages in answering the subscriber's telephone, to obtain the complete recorded messages it was necessary for a telephone call to be made to and answered by an operator at the host system 12 who would manually transfer the telephone caller to the voice mail system 14 by dialing it or if a telephone call was made first to the voice mail system, thereafter the telephone caller would dial "0" to reach on operator at the host system who would then give information pertaining to recorded textual messages. Forcing the subscriber to listen to the recorded messages in their entirety is highly disadvantageous when the subscriber has time pressures such as occur on trips away from the office. Furthermore, each of the system 12, voice mail system 14 and telephone switch 16 were controlled by separate processors which prevented an integrated operation of the system as a whole. Independent control of the parts of the system slowed down operation and further made it more difficult to program different parts of the system in that they were not under the operation of a single control program. Finally, the prior art system of FIG. 1 is expensive.

U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,612,416 and 4,669,346 disclose an integrated voice and textual message service system. The system of the aforementioned patents has an architecture in which a programmed switch interfaces with a voice mail service and a textual message center. Communications between the voice mail service and the switching network and between the message center and the switching network are by means of telephone lines. This distributed system has the same disadvantages of the prior art described above with regard to FIG. 1 in that the overall system is not controlled by a single integrated control and that system communications are based upon telephone communications.

An answering system for recording voice and textual messages based upon a Wang VS100 processor has been developed. This system is relatively expensive in that it is based upon a computing system much larger than a personal computer.

PBX systems are known which include voice mail capability. With these systems, the voice mail function is added on to the PBX architecture. PBX based systems of this type are not under the control of an integrated processor and therefore require communications over low bandwidth lines connecting the PBX system to the add on voice mail system such as telephone lines or RS232 data lines. No summary of recorded text and voice messages is available. Communications between the PBX and the voice mail system are by telephone line plus an auxiliary low bandwidth data line.

From the perspective of a person having their telephone answered by use of a telephone answering system, it is of extreme importance that the method of answering the telephone projects an extension of the person's actual telephone answering method. Thus, a telephone answering system in performing operator assisted answering services should present a telephone response to the telephone caller which is knowledgeable of the person's business whose telephone is being answered and which is highly efficient in gathering important information to be provided to the person at the time of check in telephone call to the answering system to obtain recorded messages. Furthermore, from the perspective of a telephone answering service or a private telephone switching system, it is extremely important that the operators are efficient at answering telephone calls to increase the throughout of answered telephone calls and further function to accurately record textual messages so as to maintain the highest possible degree of satisfaction with persons having the telephone answered. Additionally, voice mail systems operated should to the greatest possible extend provide telephone callers with a sense of ease in leaving a voice recorded message.

At times where the number of telephone calls being answered with operator intervention by a telephone answering service or by a private switching network is relatively high, it is of extreme importance to provide the operator with a maximum amount of information compactly displayed on the display screen associated with the operator station to permit the operator to provide a personalized operator response to all telephone callers connected to the operator including telephone callers to persons having their telephone answered as well as check-in telephone calls from persons having their telephone answered by a telephone answering system who wish to obtain messages which have been recorded as voice message or textual messages.

The assignee's EVE.RTM. provided operators at operator stations with a display on the display screen identifying telephone calls for persons having their telephone answered (secretarial) and check-in telephone calls to the operator from persons having their telephone answered checking in to obtain textual messages. However, this capability was limited to check-in telephone calls and secretarial telephone calls and did not identify other characteristics of telephone calls such as a check-in telephone call to an operator originating from a telephone call to obtain the subscriber's voice message to obtain a special message such as an emergency.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a telephone answering system having voice message recording and textual message recording controlled by a programmable controller. The operation of the parts in the telephone answering system and communications within the system are controlled by a single control program. With the invention, high data transmission rates between the controller, a voice recording system and a text recording system and the system storage which records the textual and voice messages are achieved by use of the data bus of a programmed personal computer. Usage of the data bus for transmission of data throughout the system overcomes the problem with prior art systems which utilized telephone bandwidth and/or low bandwidth data connections between distributed parts of the telephone answering system including the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system.

Furthermore, the invention provides an up-to-date summary of the number of telephone calls which have been answered by the voice message recording system and the textual message recording system of the present invention to persons using the telephone answering system to answer their telephone calls. This enables the person using the telephone answering system with a single telephone call to rapidly identify the nature of the messages which have been received by the telephone answering system and further to enable a selective retrieval of the messages by dialing an operator DTMF tone to have the recorded textual messages read by the operator and/or activating the playback of the recorded voice messages by inputting appropriate DTMF tones. This feature provides maximum flexibility to the user of the telephone answering system which is especially useful for users of the telephone answering system who have limitations on the amount of time which may be used for retrieving messages with check-in telephone calls to the telephone answering system.

Furthermore, in a situation when an emergency message has been left for a person having telephone calls answered by the telephone answering system and attempts to reach the person have failed, the system automatically transfers a check-in telephone call of the person having their telephone calls answered to an operator and displays at the operator station that the telephone call is "expected" to immediately alert the operator that an emergency message should be given to the telephone caller. This feature permits the system to quickly respond to situations requiring conveying of emergency messages.

The telephone answering system of the present invention further provides a display to operators who operate the system of characteristics of telephone calls to their operator station. This permits the operator to rapidly obtain a maximum amount of information in the shortest possible period of time which enables tailoring the precise method of answering telephone calls to the nature of the telephone call being received by the operator station. Providing the operator with characteristics of telephone calls to the operator station provides the operator with information necessary to personalize the method of answering the telephone calls received by the operator station to the nature of the telephone calls.

The present invention provides integrated voice mail and textual mail answering capability to telephone answering systems at a cost not achievable with the prior art. The present invention achieves a reduction in cost by elimination of the prior art distributed hardware which is interconnected by telephone bandwidth and/or low bandwidth data communications. Additionally, the usage of a PC to program implement system control a